NAACP gathers for Moral Week of Action

Group focusing on overincarceration, undereducation

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Jimmie M. Garland, center, president of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Branch NAACP, is surrounded by supporters during a news conference Monday morning at Veterans Plaza.(Photo: THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/GREG WILLIAMSON, THE LEAF-CHRONICLE/GREG WILLIAMSON)Buy Photo

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Jimmie Garland, president of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Branch NAACP, and several supporters gathered for a Moral Week of Action Rally Monday morning at Veterans Plaza.

Garland explained how the NAACP strives to ensure that all students have access to an equal and high-quality public education by eliminating education-related racial and ethnic disparities in our public schools. “Throughout the 20th century, education has been viewed as a way out of poverty to a better life,” Garland said. “Many residents of our community have virtually pulled themselves out of poverty and into the middle class by education.”

Moral Monday was set to take place in 12 states across the country as part of the Moral Week of Action.

Garland said the educational gains that have been are in jeopardy because minority children are at risk of being uneducated or undereducated.

He said the same state lottery that was supported by minorities has been manipulated by Tennessee’s “legislature of extremists” to continually increase the requirements of ACT scores and grade point averages until the number of minority students receiving the lottery scholarships each year has dropped by more than 25 percent.

“We have come to stand up and speak out, because this government and legislature has continued to cut funding for Pre-K and Early Education,” Garland said. “They have stripped the teachers unions of bargaining power, reneged on a promised pay raise, as well as failed to allocate funds for the implementation of Common Core standards.”

Garland also addressed the criminal justice system, saying Tennessee has misplaced its priorities by continuing to overincarcerate and undereducate. He pointed to the effects of excessive spending on incarceration, saying it undermines education opportunity and public safety, creating a “Crade to Prison Pipeline.”

The NAACP’s “Misplaced Priorities” report represents a call to action for public and law enforcement officials, policy makers and local NAACP members by providing a framework to implement a policy agenda that will financially prioritize investments in education, overincarcerations and advance public safety strategies.

“Today, we’ve come to stand with our law enforcement officials and other community member to ensure that education and criminal justice are a priority in our community,” Garland said. “We are here to Stand Up and Speak Out for Education and to work to ensure that our justice system is fair to every citizen.”

Garland started Monday in Clarksville, but will travel this week to Knoxville, Chattanooga, Johnson City, Murfreesboro, Jackson and Memphis to lend support.

“We want to try and set the standard and have the state legislators give us equal justice,” Garland said.